8: Summary and Conclusion

Chapters IV-VII presented a summary of the evidence.
Now, let's take examine the total evidence in the light of what
this evidence was supposed to show. The first thing that the
evidence was supposed to show was the uniqueness of Jewish history.
Remember the Martian perspective that we spoke about in chapter
III. We imagined a Martian surveying all of human history except
for the Jews. He would come to recognize various categories
of expected events: what happens to peoples under conditions of
success or conditions of failure, war and peace, famine and exile,
health and disease, economic collapse and economic prosperity
and so on. He would have certain expected conditions of development
and disintegration of civilizations. We then asked: "Would
the Martian regard the Jew as more of the same, fitting in with
the normal regularities that he has come to expect, living under
the same conditions and types of rise and fall and development
and disintegration of civilization? Or, would he regard the Jew
as utterly unique in human history?"

The survey of the features of Jewish history that
I have presented would lead the Martian to conclude that the Jew
is utterly unique. First, the Jew possesses predictions of events
that could not have been expected to happen and on which a neutral
bystander would have put a very low probability. The estimate
that we came up with in chapter IV was a probability of 1/16000
that the prediction in Deuteronomy 28-30 would be expected to
come true. And, against all expectations, this prediction came
true.

Second, Jews have witnessed miraculous events,
including unique public miracles that other nations don't even
claim. Very surprising unique events have happened in Jewish history,
events which served to support Judaism, to enable Judaism to survive,
and to rescue Judaism from dangerous circumstances. Third, Judaism
survived and developed under historical conditions which were
unique, conditions which would have lead to the disintegration
of Judaism, especially when compared to other world religions.
Fourth, you have a unique quality of life, and fifth, a unique
impact on world civilization. All of this would have to lead
the Martian to conclude that Jewish history is unique.

Well then, what shall the Martian do with this unique
history? Again we said in chapter III, when you have an area
of phenomena which you think you can explain and then you come
across a new phenomenon in the area which all of your tools of
explanation cannot handle, you need to add something to your tools
in order to explain the new phenomenon. The example we gave was
the case of the nucleus in the atom, when it was inexplicable
that all the protons should sit there without repelling one another,
and physics added the nuclear force which holds them together
against the force of electrostatics.

Similarly, if you have a unique historical phenomenon,
and it cannot be explained by the normal features which produce
other historical phenomena, then you have to infer the existence
of some other force which is responsible for this phenomenon.
Then from the description of the phenomenon you can infer directly
at least a minimal description of the force that produces it.
It has to be the kind of force that is capable of producing the
unique features of that phenomenon.

The features in question are: an unaccountably true
prediction against all odds, miraculous events which help to found
and support the Jewish religion, the survival of Judaism against
all historical probability, a unique quality of life enjoyed uniquely
by Jewish communities, and the impact of Judaism on all of world
civilization. What kind of force could be responsible for those
kinds of effects?

First, the force must be powerful. It has maintained
the existence of a civilization, it has produced the crossing
of the Red Sea, the revelation at Sinai, the manna that people
ate and so on: it must have considerable power at its disposal.
Second, it must be intelligent. A blind or uninformed force cannot
maintain the existence of a civilization. Third, it must be some
interested in Judaism in particular. These things didn't happen
to the Hindus or the Eskimos or the Chinese. They happened only
to the Jews and therefore this force must be interested in the
Jews in particular.

But fourth, it cannot be exclusively interested
in the Jews. If it were exclusively interested in the Jews, it
could have transported the Jews to some isolated area and maintained
them over there and had its particular interaction with them there.
Instead, the Jews were brought to the crossroads of three continents,
and they had an impact on the development of world civilization.
Apparently, then, that force is interested also in the rest of
mankind. It is not exclusively interested in the Jews. It is
interested that Judaism should have an effect on the development
of world civilization as a whole.

Now those are all descriptions of G-d, that is,
the Jewish conception of G-d. Those descriptions of G-d are directly
confirmed by a survey of the historical record.

That much we can directly confirm. The rest -
other descriptions of G-d, G-d being infinite, or G-d being creator
of the universe and so on - are not directly confirmed by the
survey of history. One also finds in Judaism descriptions of
events that cannot be directly assessed, like the descriptions
of the future, that there will be a Messiah, or what happens to
the soul after death - there are no ways to directly confirm these.
But, as I said in chapter III, since this is all part of a single
coordinated body of information, and since those aspects of the
information that can be directly assessed are all directly supported
by the evidence, the rest of the body of information gains credibility
by being a part of that same body of information, just as it is
with respect to any other source of information that you evaluate.
If everything that source of information tells you which you
can verify checks out true, then the other things it tells you
are credible.

This, it seems to me, puts Judaism in the position
of having greater probability of truth than any alternative.
It surely has greater probability of truth than any other religion
because as we saw in chapter II, other religions don't have any
relevant evidence at all. Judaism is the only religion that puts
itself on the line and offers evidence, and the evidence is quite
powerful. A secular view of the world is inferior because all
of these events cannot be explained from a secular perspective.
You cannot explain the survival of the Jewish people, you cannot
explain the verified accounts of miracles, you cannot explain
the correct prediction, you cannot explain the unique quality
of life, you cannot explain the impact that Judaism has had on
world civilization, and you certainly cannot explain the sum of
all of these taken together.

Now, have I absolutely refuted the skeptic? Couldn't
the skeptic still admit that he hasn't explained them, but hold
that maybe they will be explained in the future? Yes, it is still
conceivable that there is no G-d and that these things
happen for naturalistic reasons that we simply don't have access
to at this time. But, I remind you that that wasn't the name of
the game. That appeal only satisfies Descartes. It is still
conceivable that the favored hypothesis is not true - but that
is true for everything you believe, everything you know, everything
you rely upon. Everything has some conceivable alternative which
has not been ruled out absolutely.

That wasn't the criterion that we agreed upon.
The criterion that we agreed upon was high probability of truth
vis-a-vis the alternatives. The reason that we agreed upon
that criterion was because Judaism is a practice. Judaism
involves decisions. The criterion to which we hold responsible
decisions is the criterion of high probability of truth. Whatever
is the case with respect to theoretical beliefs (and philosophy
is riddled with disagreement about that, and most philosophers
disagree with Descartes' criterion) that is not relevant to us
- we have to decide how to live. Decisions on how to live are
made on the basis of high probability of truth vis-a-vis alternatives,
that is to say, if those decisions are going to be made responsibly.
That is the criterion to which we hold other people. If that
is the criterion that we use for responsibility in all other areas
of practical life, then we have to use it in this area as well.
Therefore, Judaism is the only responsible way to live.

Once the power of the evidence that the Torah is
true is appreciated, two questions naturally arise. One: if the
evidence is so compelling, why is the number of people who believe
in the truth of the Torah so small? Two: if the Torah is the only
truth, don't we have an obligation to preach it to others? But
this contradicts Judaism's consistent refusal to proselytize.We
will answer the questions in turn.

The first question expresses a common assumption.
The assumption is this: Whatever can be seen to be true by available
evidence and simple logic should be recognized as true by a great
majority of mankind. But this assumption is clearly false.

Consider anti-semitism as an example. There are
(at least) hundreds of millions of anti-semites. They believe
that Jews are evil, dirty, subhuman, etc. etc.. And yet many of
them live among Jews. They have no evidence whatsoever for their
beliefs. If they took the time, they could gather enormous evidence
against what they believe. Still they persist in their folly.

Consider the shape of the earth. More than two thousand
years ago considerable evidence existed that the earth is round.
(Indeed, a few in the intelligentsia believed it.) The sightings
of stars by sailors, the difference in shadows at noon in different
locations, the disappearance of the bottom of the ship before
the sails - this evidence was available to many. Yet almost no
one questioned the "obvious truth" that the earth is
flat.

Consider any human study or activity - e.g., cooking,
economics, sailing, mining, stamp collecting - does the majority
of people have the truth about these matters? Usually only those
people who take the time to study them know the truth, and they
are the tiny minority.

The moral is this: Often what can be discovered
from available evidence via common logic is known only by a tiny
minority of people.

Now the explanations of this failure to find the
truth will vary from case to case. For the truth of the Torah,
it not to hard to provide. First, very few have direct access
to the evidence presented here. Second, very few can make an unbiased
examination of religion since their family and social life depends
largely on their religious affiliation. Third, the argument presented
here is not exactly simple. [I wish I could make it more so!]
It takes considerable intellectual effort to follow it to its
conclusion. These three factors are enough to explain why acceptance
of the Torah's truth is so limited.

The second question is this: If the Torah is the
truth, don't we have an obligation to share it with the rest of
the world? But Judaism does not believe in actively seeking converts.
That seems to imply that we do not really believe that it is true!

Many people share this misconception. They start
with the truth that Judaism does not seek converts. They then
draw the false conclusion that Judaism accepts other religions
for other people. They then infer that Judaism does not regard
itself as true.

Let's sort out the facts. Judaism is the truth as
revealed by the Creator of the entire universe. The "Jewish
G-d" is the only G-d. He is as much the G-d of the
Hindus and the Taoists as He is of the Jews. If the Hindus and
Taoists do not recognize this, then their religious beliefs are
not true. (See chap. II.)

It is a tragedy when people live their lives based
on false beliefs. This holds for medicine, economics, nutrition
and (all the more so) for religion. Since we possess the truth,
it is definitely a responsibility to share it with others. This
means teaching them that it is true - no more.

Now suppose we are successful in doing this. Non-Jews
will come to see that the Torah is true. What then? Well, since
the Torah has a place for believing non-Jews, we will explain
to them how to serve G-d as believing non-Jews. Since the
Torah does not require them to convert to Judaism in order to
serve G-d faithfully, we have no interest in seeking their conversion.

We do not proselytize because the Torah - which
is the only religious truth, and which we have an obligation to
teach to all - does not require others to be Jews.

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